Iraq and Afghanistan

The Department of Defense has let it be known that for some time it has been taking a direct role in the gathering of intelligence in front line situations such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The newspapers point out that this is part of a long-running turf battle between the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency). It seems to me that what Defense is doing makes sense. If we have troops in an area, then the intelligence service most closely related to those troops should be the one that has responsibility for intelligence gathering for those troops. Ideally, each part of our defensive establishment, whether it be special forces or homeland security, whatever unit is meant to act offensively or defensively should be directly connected to an intelligence capability. The situation is quite different for strategic intelligence. Here the CIA and the Department of State’s intelligence bureau should be the main sources of intelligence. For in this case the intelligence gathered should go to the top and then back down to the action agencies.